In some aspects, a query for one or more items is received. The query includes a plurality of terms. It is determined that a search result candidate is semantically similar to the query based at least in part on a distance between a first vector that represents the query and a second vector that represents the search result candidate in semantic space. The first vector and the second vector can each correspond to a single vector of binary values. Based at least in part on the determining that the search result candidate is semantically similar to the query, the search result candidate may be caused to be displayed. The search result candidate can include at least a first term that has a same meaning as at least a second term of the query, and the first term and the second term may have a different structure.